CBC Investigates

Meet Americans fleeing Trump — by moving to New Brunswick

Forget Cape Breton - New Brunswick is getting some of the region's first Trump émigrés

Alicen Grant and Paul Rubinstein were married in 2015. Now they're hoping to move to New Brunswick from Alabama. (Submitted by Paul Rubinstein)

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Lots of Americans — including Barbra Streisand, Samuel L. Jackson and Bryan Cranston — said they'd move to Canada if Donald Trump became president. Few have actually made good on those pronouncements.

But Paul Rubinstein, 29, and Alicen Grant, 28, are an exception.

Paul Rubinstein and Alicen Grant live with their four dogs in Prattville, Ala. Prompted by Donald Trump's presidential win, they anticipate moving to New Brunswick this spring. (Submitted by Paul Rubinstein)

The couple, who both work as veterinarians, live in Prattville, Ala., a bedroom community of ranch-style houses, not far from largely-Republican Montgomery.

But not for much longer.

In spring 2017, they and their family of pets plan to flee Trump's America for the stately elms and riverfront vistas of Fredericton.

"My wife and I had kind of joked to all our friends and family, and my boss if Trump won, we were leaving," Rubinstein said.

Rubinstein, whose paternal grandfather survived the Holocaust and whose mother's family immigrated from Italy in the 1920s, comes from a "family of immigrants," he said.

"My family history is of people who were trying to come to this country to get a better life, and were vilified. Now that discrimination between certain groups is being repeated, and I don't feel like that's really what America should stand for."

The travel ban Trump ordered on Jan. 29 struck a serious chord with Rubinstein, whose paternal grandfather survived the Holocaust. 'My family history is of people who were trying to come to this country to get a better life, and were vilified,' Rubinstein says. “Now that discrimination between certain groups is being repeated."

Not only that, but "Trump's rhetoric is sexist," Grant said, "and the southeast United States is sexist. I think it's gotten worse through this election cycle."

Their research eventually pointed them toward New Brunswick. It would be relatively simple, they found, to become licensed to practice as vets in Canada given their American credentials. New Brunswick, they noted, was also close to Rubinstein's family in upstate New York.

"The more we looked into it, the more it looked like a place that would really suit us long-term," said Grant.

Her husband agreed.

"It was question of where this country is going — in a direction that I don't feel comfortable with."

'Well, let's make this happen'

In December, the couple flew to Fredericton for the first time for a bit of reconnaissance.

Their first impression of the capital was that it was "absolutely beautiful," said Grant.

"The river was frozen when we were flying in, and it was gorgeous. All of the downtown has the older buildings, and it was so friendly."

"We said, 'well, let's make this happen,'" Rubinstein said.

The couple landed jobs interviews at Islandview Veterinary Clinic, which has locations in Silverwood and New Maryland. They even found a rental property in Fredericton that will accommodate them and their four dogs — two cavalier King Charles spaniels named Dash and Disraeli, a mutt named Z, and their eight-month-old English Setter, Thatcher.

Paul Rubinstein, pictured with Thatcher the dog, and his wife Alicen Grant are both licensed veterinarians and have jobs lined up at the Fredericton-area Islandview Veterinary Hospital. (Submitted by Paul Rubinstein)

Excited about lobster, snow

Despite the surprise expressed by some of their loved ones, Grant said, "we definitely had some friends that were on the same page. I don't kn ow if they're going to actually follow us up but we'll see."

Grant is looking forward to skiing and ice skating — and introducing their dogs to Canadian winter.

"We've ordered their little boots and their jackets," she joked.

Rubinstein is pumped for "the lobster, of course," he said.

"That, and Canadians are, like, the nicest people I have ever met in my life. Like, ever."

Rubinstein and Grant said they're still proud to be American, but they're looking forward to enjoying everything Fredericton has to offer. (Submitted by Paul Rubinstein)

But leaving, while exciting, is bittersweet.

"In a lot of ways, I still am proud to be an American," said Rubinstein, adding he hopes to cast a write-in ballot in the 2020 election.

But moving to New Brunswick, he said, is a political statement.

"More than our vote or anything else, to just say goodbye and move our tax money elsewhere — that is the most powerful statement we can make."